Uber

Uber is expanding its Uber Freight truck service to the Netherlands. The company will initially focus on Dutch activities, and over time expand the service to other European countries, NU.nl reports

The Netherlands will be the first European country where Uber Freight is offered. The service links companies to trucks, like the normal Uber connects passengers and taxis. According to Uber, Uber Freight will make it easier for small and medium sized businesses to transport their cargo through Europe.

An estimated 200 taxi drivers will be protesting on the Malieveld in The Hague on Tuesday afternoon against ride-hailing service Uber. Before the protest, two convoys of taxis will travel to The Hague from Amsterdam and Rotterdam at low speeds, not exceeding 60 kilometers per hour. The taxi drivers expect to start their protest in The Hague just after noon, the Telegraaf reports.

The Netherlands' safe traffic association VVN will start giving Amsterdam Uber drivers traffic safety training next week. This training is mandatory for all Uber drivers in the Dutch capital who are under the age of 25, NU.nl reports.

Uber is taking measures following a series of fatal accidents involving its drivers in Amsterdam. The ride-hailing service is increasing the minimum age for its drivers from 18 to 21 years, and new drivers must have at least a year of driving experience. Uber, in cooperation with safe traffic association VVN, is also developing a mandatory road safety course for all its drivers under the age of 25, NOS reports.

The age limit will only apply to new drivers, existing drivers who are under the age of 21 can continue to work for Uber.

The Dutch association for traffic safety VVN wants to ban Uber from the road after a series of fatal accidents involving Uber taxis. "Four deaths in six weeks and yesterday another incident in Amsterdam where a 9-year-old girl was seriously injured and the driver just drove off", Rob Stomphorst of VVN said to the Telegraaf.

A fatal traffic accident that left a 64-year-old man and his 33-year-old daughter dead was caused by an Uber driver, the ride-sharing platform reportedly confirmed to website TaxiPro. The crash happened on January 3 just after the victims dropped family off at Schiphol Airport.

Uber drivers are said to be involved in crashes that killed four people in Amsterdam over the past six weeks. The Uber driver in the January 3 crash is still in custody having allegedly used cannabis.

Amsterdam traffic and transport alderman Sharon Dijksma is "very concerned" about traffic safety and taxis, she said after a 24-year-old woman died in a collision with an Uber taxi this weekend. "In recent times too many accidents happened where taxis are involved", Dijksma said, Het Parool reports.

A 24-year-old woman died in a collision on the intersection of Poeldijkstraat and Heemstedestraat in Amsterdam Nieuw-West early on Sunday morning. She was hit by an Uber driver while cycling over the intersection at around 4:00 a.m., Het Parool reports.

Paramedics tried to resuscitate the victim, but it was to no avail. She died at the scene. The 21-year-old taxi driver was arrested and taken to a police station for questioning. The police call on witnesses to come forward.

Hundreds of Amsterdam taxi drivers are trading Uber accounts online. As a result, it is often difficult to confirm the identity of your Uber driver, AT5 reports after infiltrating the social networks where the accounts are sold.

The Dutch Personal Data Authority fined Uber 600 thousand euros for not reporting a major data leak in 2016 in time. The leak meant that unauthorized persons had access to millions of Uber customers' and drivers' personal data, the Authority said on Tuesday, NU.nl reports.

Taxi drivers in the Netherlands are planning an attack on Uber's head office in Amsterdam. According to messages sent on Telegram group 'WegMetUber', taxi drivers plan to storm the Uber office with fire bombs, AD reports.

The newspaper came across the group chat on messaging service Telegram, which now has around 300 anonymous members. A recent call on the group states that the attack is planned at 4:00 p.m. on March 20th. "Everything and everyone is welcome. Bring your bricks, fireworks and molotovs with you!" the call reads.

Alternative taxi platform Uber has been using a secret computer program to block access to its systems whenever the authorities raided their offices for an inspection. This way important information was hidden from the authorities for several years, according to news agency Bloomberg.

The personal data of around 174 thousand Dutch Uber customers and drivers was stolen in a hack that hit the taxi company late last year, Uber announced on Tuesday. The hack was only reported last month, NU.nl reports.

According to Uber, the number of affected Dutch is only an estimate, because it is not always clear from which country users of the service are.

With hidden cameras, television program Zembla caught Uber drivers in Amsterdam breaking the city's taxi regulations. The drivers sometimes pick up passengers from the street, without them ordering an Uber taxi with the app, while the Amsterdam regulations state that only drivers from the eight official taxi centers in the city are allowed to do so, Het Parool reports.

The Dutch Personal Data Protection Authority is launching an investigation into a massive data breach at Uber last year. The authority only "very recently" received a report from Uber about the hack, in which personal data of 57 million people were stolen, the Volkskrant reports.

Late last year Uber was hacked and the personal data of 50 million customers and 7 million drivers were stolen. Whether any Dutch customers or drivers were among them, a spokesperson for Uber Nederland refused to say to RTL Nieuws. According to the spokesperson, the company is currently "in conversation with various authorities", and the Uber will not publish any more details about the hack until these talks are done.

Sharing platforms like Uber and Airbnb must be regulated before they form a monopoly, Dutch think tank Rathenau Institute said in a report titled Fair Sharing on Wednesday. If these platforms aren't regulated, jobs in the regular economy will be put under pressure and the platforms will cause problems, the report states, ANP reports.

The Amsterdam Economic Board recently announced that taxi service Uber is one of its new partners. The PvdA and SP expressed criticism on this decision and will submit council questions, Het Parool reports.

After years of only servicing the Randstad area in the Netherlands, Uber is launching its taxi service in Eindhoven today. But not everyone is happy about this, regular taxi drivers in particular are upset. "Let them fuck off quickly", one taxi driver, Karin, said to Omroep Brabant.

After years of only operating in the Randstad area in the Netherlands, American taxi service Uber is now also launching in Eindhoven. Uber calls Eindhoven an interesting marked due to the "innovating and international character" of the region, referring particularly to the airport and the High Tech campus, RTL Nieuws reports.

The American company believes there will be enough interest for the service in Eindhoven. According to the company, Uber app users already check whether there are Uber taxis available in the city. The service launches there on Wednesday.

Uber plans to increase the number of employees at its Amsterdam office from the current 400 to 1,000 over the coming decade. The taxi service is therefore moving to a larger location in the Dutch capital at the end of this year, the Telegraaf reports.

Striking taxi drivers in Amsterdam blocked access to the taxi stand on the west side of Amsterdam Central Station on Monday, which means that travelers can not take a taxi from the station. The drivers are tired of the endless new rules from the municipality of Amsterdam, a spokesperson said to NOS.

According to the spokesperson, the problems started when the municipality moved the taxi stand from the front to the back of the station. "We lost almost 60 percent of our customers", he said. People don't know where to find the taxis. "Even the toilet signs are better clarified."

The Netherlands' Environment and Transport Inspectorate issued a 650 thousand euro fine to Uber for violating the Taxi Act. This amount is a remnant of ap reviously imposed fine of 1 million euros for the controversial service UberPOP. According to the inspectorate, Uber gave unlicensed taxi drivers the opportunity to engage in illegelal lease agreements with cmopanies that do have taxi licenses, NU.nl reports.

Controversial taxi service Uber is launching a food delivery service in Amsterdam on Thursday. UberEATS will use bicycle couriers to deliver meals in the Dutch capitals, thereby becoming a new competitor for existing platforms like Thuisbezorgd.nl, Deliveroo and Foodora